To say that our history lessons are limited is an understatement. But if there's one era we have collectively retraced over and over, it's that of the Tudors.
King Henry VIII has transcended the earthy pigments of Holbein's portraits to become a multi-dimensional figure in each of our minds, helped along by his many on-screen depictions across TV and film.
For the new Channel 5 drama Anne Boleyn, it is Mark Stanley (known for previous roles in Game of Thrones, ITV's White House Farm and Netflix's Criminal) that's taking the chalice – but he was careful to bring his own take to the somewhat infamous role.
"It's more to do with sort of scratching beneath the surface of everything that's been prescribed to us so far, in terms of your education about the Tudors and what you'd learnt at school about them and that kind of thing," he tells Digital Spy exclusively.
"Because everything's written from a historian's point of view, it's quite difficult to actually find out the truth about them. Some things are written in bias, whether or not that's under threat because he's a King and he could do what he wanted with you, or whether or not you actually loved him, so you've also got to take people's accounts with a pinch of salt too.
"The most important thing was just to try and find out what his circumstances were and what sort of pressures he was feeling at that time in his life. He must have been under a huge amount of scrutiny and he's trying to keep the image of England strong, and his lineage strong, but he can't produce a male heir.
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"He's gone 17 years with his previous wife and he's only managed to produce [girl] children – which would be great today, but back then unfortunately not."
The research, he explains, actually ended up pushing him away from taking on anybody else's point of view of the former monarch for this role.
"Every historian that you'd read would be contradictory to another one, and it's whether or not they're following that sort of – they're trying to prove that he was tyrannical or they're trying to prove their perspective," the actor says.
Instead, Mark described that he wanted to think about "the person who is underneath it all", asking himself questions such as what it would have been like to have been told that you're ordained by God, and that you're the one true person and have ultimate power.
When you think of it like that, is it any wonder that Henry VIII has been colloquially labelled as the original f**k boy? A stocky silhouette of toxic masculinity, he took the throne from 1509 until his death in 1547 but Henry's most notable legacy was his six wives – two of which, he killed.
Bold new drama Anne Boleyn tells a familiar story but from a very unfamiliar perspective. Henry is not, for the first time, the focal point around which his subjects dance in floaty dresses with bashful smiles. For perhaps the first time, his second and arguably most iconic wife Anne is at the centre of her own story.
"To be honest with you, that was the draw for me," Mark says of this narrative choice.
"You've got to ask yourself what [Anne Boleyn] was going through, sometimes we see her as this sort of outspoken loud-mouth person who goes beyond their position in court. But imagine those dark nights when she's laying on her own thinking how fickle her position was, how fragile she was, after having miscarried, only creating a daughter in Elizabeth."
"I thought, also, we've got to start telling these stories from female perspectives, it can't just be this constant repetition of 'well it was a man's world, so we'll tell it from a man's point of view' – I think that's nonsense."
In many ways, Anne Boleyn examines the events of history through a modern lens. Not only is the drama female-led both in front of and behind the camera, but its shift in perspective is clear.
It's in the finer details. "We've gone to the extent of making sure their costumes are more notable than ours, we're sort of dulled down and made to wear darker colours," Mark points out – but it's also present in the themes that get explored, from the power-imbalance of Henry and Anne's relationship to the patriarchal double standards when it comes to expectations that are placed on women, and the mental and physical trauma of miscarriage and stillbirth.
The latter is afforded a particularly poignant scene. Mark praised the writers for "being brave enough to show it as it is" as well as noting the importance and impact of showing such a moment.
"It's raw and it's been done that way, but it's to show what she was going through – it's hard to see, but it's important because it reflects on the ficklety of her position following that," he continues. "And, actually, what she was willing to go through to ensure that heir, [and to] ensure the bridge with her family and the Crown was maintained. Quite sacrificial really… Again, just highlighting that strength that she had."
"It's important as a modern society to start a more open conversation about subjects such as stillbirth, which are still considered taboo and often not spoken about within popular culture," he later adds.
Jodie Turner-Smith takes the title role as Anne Boleyn, breathing new life into a figure that history has not been kind to. I May Destroy You's breakout star Paapa Essiedu is another notable casting: he plays her condemned brother, George Boleyn, also collateral to Henry's ambitions.
"Before – you might have made this drama 30 years ago – it would have been an all-white cast, it would have been about Henry, and the draw for me was I want to wave the flag. I want to be part of the change that's inevitable and the change that, in my opinion, is long overdue," Mark explains.
We've seen a refreshing progression towards more diverse period dramas, Netflix's Bridgerton being one other recent example. This is something that Mark also points to as being "a draw" when it came to Anne Boleyn.
"You look at people from that period, and of course the world was shaped in a certain way back then," he later adds. "But it's not shaped like that now. And we've got to be able to make sure that people are represented."
"But saying that… it was more to do with turning up and finding out what that person's energy was about. And how they could represent the energy of that person of the time."
"For someone to diminish, take [Jodie's] energy away, simply because of literally a skin-deep aesthetic – what a waste that would be," he says. "And it’s the way to think now, I think, the way to move forward. Long may it continue."
Anne Boleyn airs on Channel 5 across 3 nights, starting on June 1 at 9pm.
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TV Editor, Digital Spy Laura has been watching television for over 30 years and professionally writing about entertainment for almost 10 of those. Previously at LOOK and now heading up the TV desk at the UK's biggest TV and movies site Digital Spy, Laura has helped steer conversations around some of the most popular shows on the box. Laura has appeared on Channel 5 News and radio to talk viewing habits and TV recommendations. As well as putting her nerd-level Buffy knowledge to good use during an IRL meet with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laura also once had afternoon tea with One Direction, has sat around the fire pit of the Love Island villa, spoken to Sir David Attenborough about the world's oceans and even interviewed Rylan from inside the Big Brother house (housemate status, forever pending).
